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It was decided we would send the cameras down first, after scanning the entire bay with a special machine that would create a map of the wreck for us. Ashley, one of the archeologists helping sort through the items at the Mission, had been the diver who found the ship to begin with. She looked more like a super model than a scientist, but it was instantly clear she knew what she was talking about.
“It was my day off,” she explained, tucking her long black hair behind her ears. “I hadn’t been for a dive in a while and the water looked calm enough. The site is about one hundred feet under water, just inside the opening to the bay. The only reason I found it was because of the metal detector I’d brought with me; I’d been hoping to find some artifacts linked to the missionaries that lived here, maybe uncover how they interacted with the water.”
“What pinged the monitor?” I asked, watching as the printer slowly pushed out a sheet detailing the area. “A cannon?”
“I’m not exactly sure.” Her tone was apologetic and she shrugged. “It might have been. Once I saw all the stones laying in a row, though, I knew it must have been a boat. There’s not much left on the surface. Not of the actual craft, anyway.”
Nodding, I continued to watch the map forming before us. “Just things that were on board.” We’d driven over the location five times with our equipment, hopeful that we’d get a good enough scan to really see what was there. So far, it looked like we were stumbling into the find of a lifetime. “Good catch with the stones, by the way. Most people would have thought they were just rocks sitting funny.”
“I am an archeologist,” she said, laughing. “I know ships had big stones like that in the hold to help keep balance. Nature doesn’t really make perfect lines, either.”
“I guess you wouldn’t be most people, then.” Looking over at her, I smiled warmly. She was very pretty, intellectual, and didn’t seem to shy away from the fact that she knew those things about herself. Confidence was very appealing to me; maybe I’d ask her to dinner one night.
The printer made a final ding and the large map slid the rest of the way out, onto the table, a mess of lines and numbers. In the middle of it, though, plain as day, was a vessel lying on its side.
“It looks like there’s quite a bit left under the sand, if these readings are correct.” Gingerly, I picked up the map, holding it so we could both examine it better. “This is where you tried to look for a name, right?”
“Yeah.” Moving closer, she pointed to a spot on the ship at one end. “I didn’t dig very far, though. It’s pretty stuck in there. There was no sign of extreme decay, but I didn’t want to risk it. Based off what I was seeing, it looked to be a good size site, as well. There wasn’t exactly enough oxygen for me to stay down there all day and search through everything.”
“Do you want to? I mean, when we send divers down. You can help me catalog everything, if you’d like.” Blushing slightly, I cleared my throat, aware that I’d phrased it like I would have if I were asking her on a date. I hadn’t meant it that way, but I could tell from the expression on her face that she had heard the proposal.
“We’ll have to see how the work on shore goes. There’s a lot of books here. Maybe I’ll just keep an eye out for something about your mystery ship.” Grinning, her hand brushed across mine as she leaned in to study the sketch I held again.
“Bell!”
Turning, I waved at Joe, who was waiting to deploy the camera that would give me my first glimpse at the site below. “I have to go.” Focusing back to Ashley, I smiled, feeling a few butterflies at her presence.
“I can see that.” Gracefully, she left the cabin, moving to get on the jet ski she’d rode out on. “Let me know if you have any more questions.”
“Thanks, Ashley,” Joe said, beaming like an idiot as he watched her climb over the side and zoom away. After she was gone, he glanced at me knowingly. “Who knew they made the smart ones so pretty now, eh?”
“Everyone, Joe.” Chuckling, I carried the map over to him, discussing a few key points of interest. “I can’t wait to get down there myself,” I added eagerly as I rolled the sheet up.
“Me either. But we need to see what is down there first before we go running off like school kids. There’s no telling how old this thing is. I’ve seen them pull things up that were down there for almost five hundred years. Granted, there wasn’t as much salt, but who knows, right?” Falling silent, he helped position the expensive lens over the side of the boat, waving when he was ready for it to go under.
Nodding, I watched as the high tech camera was carefully lowered, Hal working a small crane mechanism above us. Once everything was set, he’d join us in the cabin to steer the craft and see what showed up on our screen.
As I went back inside and took my seat, I silently marveled at Ashley. Normally, it wasn’t recommended for divers to go below one hundred and thirty feet. It was surprising that she’d even gone as deep as she had, especially for a simple, unplanned dive. We were partly using the camera now because we wanted to make sure it was worth risking going down there. If there were a large amount of the ship buried, we’d be taking an even bigger chance on our lives to uncover it.
“Is there a picture in there yet?” Hal called from above, still working the controls of the crane to drop the equipment while Joe watched.
Shaking the anticipation and wonderment off, I leaned over and turned the television on, a vision of water filling the screen. “Yeah!” I yelled, scooting the metal seat I was on over so there would be room for all of us.
The two men joined me, settling back as Hal took the remote control in his hands. “And they said video games weren’t worth the time,” he muttered, laughing. This elicited snickers from me, which I quickly masked as a cough. Hal had probably played three video games his entire life, and yet he still cracked the joke every time he used the deep sea camera.
Silence fell over the room as the descent to the ocean floor began, nothing on the screen but some white flecks and lots of water. The deeper we got, the darker it became, until the overhead lights on the machine were triggered and lit up the space around the tiny craft. Along with the sunlight that still managed to penetrate the distance, the illumination gave us almost perfect vision.
“Look, there,” Joe murmured pointing to a small object as the lens drifted over it. “That look like a bottle to you?”
“Kinda,” I agreed softly, leaning forward. It was dirty and half buried, with organisms growing on it, but there was a faint outline that looked like a regular, glass bottle.
“We’re coming up on the bow now, according to our last scan,” Hal stated, slowing down some.
“Look, boots!” In awe, I watched the leather items as they lay on the ground, undisturbed for who knew how long. The sand around them swirled gently as the motion from the camera’s propellers moved over it. Suddenly, it occurred to me that there could be more than just artifacts here. What if there were human remains buried in the sand as well?
“There’s the first stone from the hull,” Joe replied, already moving on to the next thing he saw. “And look at that bit poking up right there. Looks like a box to me. See the metal corner, coming up out of the mud? The rest of the chest could be buried in the sand.”
Everything was covered in growth from the ocean, as was expected, and only a small portion of the actual ship was visible above the silt. After three hours of careful exploration with the camera, it was clear that we would need to dive to the wreck ourselves.
“Pistols, cannons, dishes—I can’t believe how much stuff is down there!” Popping some candy into my mouth, I smiled happily, leaning back in my chair. The ship was definitely from the same era as the Golden Age of Piracy, based on the outlines of the weapons we’d seen. Once we’d raised a few things and studied them, I was positive we could give the vessel a date.
“It does look like she was taken down in battle,” Joe said, continuing the conversation. “If they’d burned her to the deck a
nd sank her on purpose, don’t you think they would have taken those things with them? Why destroy all of the stuff as well?”
“I think the greater question is what were they doing here to begin with?” Hal interjected from the doorway, having just hoisted the camera out of the water and set it back on deck. “This isn’t a good place to careen. If it came in the time frame we think it did, all that was here were the missionaries. What would pirates want with them?”
“I suppose the battle that sunk the ship could have been with the Mission.” Joe looked doubtful even as he said it.
“Because missionaries are the burning and sinking type.” Hal barked out a laugh, shaking his head. “No. I’d bet good money that there was another ship here, one that would have been a fair fight for No Name. Not some dinky fishing raft ran by religious types.”
“But that leaves an even bigger problem, doesn’t it?” I interjected, standing. “One ship could be a coincidence. But two? There’s no way. A fight suggests they were enemies, or a reluctant partnership that went bad. What were they looking for that brought them both here?”
No one had an answer for that. As we all stood there, contemplating what could have happened in this place so many years ago, I suddenly felt as if the ghosts of my friends were nearby. The notion sent a chill through me and I could practically feel the color draining from my face.
“You all right, Bell?” Joe asked suddenly, lurching forward to grab me as if I were tumbling over.
“Yeah.” The reply was stronger than I meant it to be, but it stopped him from saving me like some fainting woman. “My, uh, stomach suddenly doesn’t feel so well.”
“There’s a storm blowing in.” Hal covered for me, changing the conversation as he looked out at the clear horizon. “I can smell it. The waves are picking up some, too. We’d best get back in to shore. The visibility below will be gone before we could get down there.”
“A touch of seasickness?” Joe was joking, knowing that I had fine sea legs as he looked at me with slight concern, but I nodded all the same.
It’s happening again, the tiny voice in the back of my mind whispered. You’re getting yourself into another mystery that could kill you.
Pursing my lips, I tried to steady myself, banishing the voice and ghosts from my head. It was ridiculous that I kept feeling like I was on the brink of death. How many dives had I been on since I’d come to Florida? I’d never felt danger through any of them, besides the occasional things that all divers experienced. Sure, Michael and Sam weighed on my thoughts a lot, but this was . . . different.
Why did I feel so terrified?
The radio on the dash beeped in, saving me from the complexities of my own brain.
“This is Explorer,” Joe answered, talking into the mouthpiece and steering the boat at the same time.
“Are you guys planning on coming in soon?” It was Stephens, his high voice as smooth as silk. For some reason, whenever I heard it, I had to fight the urge to frown.
“We’re on our way back now. Why?”
“We’ve been going through some of the manuscripts here,” Stephens answered offhandedly. “Records, journals, that kind of stuff. It looks like we’ve found a couple entries about your ship.”
“What year?” I immediately asked, holding my breath as Joe repeated the question.
“These entries are dated sixteen ninety-seven. Once in a log book, another in a personal journal.”
Shocked silence fell between us. There it was—the boat, if it was the same one, was indeed from the period we wanted.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Joe said softly. He looked at Hal and I, thinking over something before he turned back to the window and pressed the button to reply. “We’re going to need to call someone about this, right, Stephens?”
“I’ve already contacted the local authorities and informed them of the historic value of the site. Hopefully, they’ll get back to me soon and send some help to keep it secure.”
“Can we see the documents?” I pressed again, impatient as the message was relayed.
“We’ve got them in a holding room for you. Ashley is looking at them right now to see if there’s anything we could possibly match to the wreck.”
“We’ll be in as soon as we can,” Joe announced. “Thanks, Stephens.”